President Llorenç Galmés insisted on the need to put an end to age discrimination during the 13th conference A Look at the Protection of Older Adults, organised on the occasion of the International Day for Raising Awareness of the Abuse and Mistreatment of Older Persons.
To study ageism in depth, based on real situations that older people experience in their daily lives and to become aware of the internalised attitudes that can lead to age discrimination. This has been the main objective of the 13th conference A look at the protection of older adults that the Institut Mallorquí d’Afers Socials (IMAS) has organised one more year coinciding with the International Day for the Awareness of Abuse and Mistreatment of the Elderly.
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The president of the Consell de Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, stated during the meeting that “guaranteeing dignified ageing and avoiding any kind of abuse, mistreatment or discrimination must be a common struggle between administrations and citizens. From the Consell we provide all the necessary resources to put an end to any pejorative situation towards the elderly, but that is why it is very important that we learn to detect those attitudes that can provoke them” and added that “conferences like today’s help us to realise that unconscious behaviours imply certain discrimination on the grounds of age. We have to build safe and inclusive environments for everyone”.
For his part, the Conseller de Benestar Social del Consell de Mallorca and president of IMAS, Guillermo Sánchez, remarked that “we have to understand ageing as just another stage of life, counteract negative and stereotyped concepts, promote the participation of the elderly in decision-making, especially in matters in which they are involved. Age-related changes must be respected” and concluded that “the administration must defend the right to age in many different ways, always respecting the life project of each person”.
During the 13th conference A look at the protection of older adults, two colloquiums were held focusing on the presence of ageism in different areas. Rosa Llobera, director of the Social and Health Care Department of the IMAS, led the first round table and remarked that “we have to be aware of institutional ageism and analyse protocols and attitudes that we carry out in centres for the elderly and which can be discriminatory. Sometimes a small gesture, a word that seems insignificant to us, can make people feel discriminated against because they are older. We must be aware of this fact and learn to avoid it. The ombudsman of Palma, Anna *Moilanen, the director of services to the people of Mater, Maria Antònia Fullana, and the professionals of the day centre of Marratxí Carme Ribot and Silvia Díaz, have deepened on this phenomenon and the need to eradicate it in order not to diminish the self-esteem of older people.
The island’s director of Community Care and Promotion of Personal Autonomy, Catalina Maria Mascaró, led the colloquium entitled Everyday Problems of Older Adults, during which she stressed “the need to be aware that sometimes, without realising it, we can hurt the sensibilities of older people. Taking their preferences for granted, deciding for ourselves whether they are hot or cold, or even talking to them as if they do not understand us are some examples of daily life that are repeated every day and which we have to put an end to. We have to value the elderly as they deserve and not fall into ageist situations”. Along the same lines, the IMAS professionals and, respectively, those responsible for SAID, the Old Age and Family Team and the Llar de Felanitx, who participated in this talk, as well as the person in charge of the ORG programme that IMAS has set up to put an end to stereotypes of women in sexuality during ageing, have expressed themselves in the same vein.
The 13th conference A look at the protection of older adults was held in the auditorium of the Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos building of the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) and was attended by some 150 people related to the field of old age. It should be remembered that IMAS has the book Edadismo (Ageism) available on the website www.imasmallorca.net, where vignettes by the illustrator Javi Royo give visibility to this type of discrimination in order to raise awareness among the general public of the need to change many of the attitudes that we carry out unconsciously.